The present invention is directed to a furniture system, and in particular an office furniture system, including means for readily and conveniently coupling portable electrical, electronic and communications equipment to appropriate electrical and communications lines. The portable equipment adapted to be used in conjunction with the system of the present invention includes computers, facsimile machines, telephones, and lighting equipment, among other things.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,562, entitled “Desk Top Wire Management Apparatus” exemplifies a known receptacle device installed in an opening on a desktop for coupling plugs of different equipment to be used on the desk, such as calculators, computers, and telephones. The apparatus disclosed by this patent includes a housing mounted within an opening in the top surface of a furniture unit, as for example in a desk top, and a cover pivotably mounted to the top of the housing. The underside of the cover includes a plurality of individual electrical receptacles which are exposed when the cover is pivoted into its opened position and extends upwardly in a substantial perpendicular orientation relative to the desktop surface. In this extended position, plugs from the portable equipment on the desk top are coupled to the individual receptacles on the underside of the cover. The receptacles in the cover are themselves coupled to a source of electrical power for energizing the equipment plugged into the cover. The housing mounted in the opening in the desktop also includes a pivotable wall for providing access to outlet assemblies or wiring modules contained within the housing. Since the housing is mounted beneath the top surface of the desk, access to the outlet assemblies or wiring modules within the housing is only available through the pivoted wall beneath the desktop surface.
The device disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,562 is complicated in that: it requires a housing have both a pivotable top cover and a pivotable wall; access to the interior of the housing is only available through the underside of the desktop to which the unit is mounted; and the pivotable cover, in its opened position, does not provide equal access to the individual electrical receptacles at different locations along the desktop surface. It is the primary object of the present invention to provide a furniture system having retractable receptacle means overcoming the disadvantages of the known systems as that exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,562.